and remember, we also have the issue of funding the government and the debt ceiling fight coming up again in may. so there's a lot of uncertainty around fiscal policy, around government contracting of all kinds. so it's going to be a sort of rolling snowball effect, i might call it, where it gets bigger and bigger. and by may this may be the only thing we're talking about. >> richard, one could wonder at this point, what was the point of setting the sequester limit if now we're just figuring out ways to come up with a new deal? this was supposed to be the deal. this was supposed to be the thing that forced action. >> right. >> what was the point of it if we're not going to enforce it? >> that's a very good question. what was the point of it? the point of it was that people had crawled out on a limb, and they needed to come off it somehow. the very people who crawled out on that limb are now saying, how did we ever get here? you made me do it. it is ridiculous. and unfortunately, you know, what's that hillary clinton line that she used to use? the definition of madness is doing the same th